Some Blacks Fear Election Means A Return To The Bad Old Days

December 03, 1987|By Devonda Byers and Jorge Casuso. William Recktenwald, Pat Jamison, and Jorge Casuso contributed to this report.

The election of Eugene Sawyer as acting mayor of Chicago drew angry and bitter responses Wednesday from blacks throughout the city who viewed his election by the City Council as a return to the back-room political wheeling and dealing of an earlier era.

``It`s a disgrace. Our people will never learn,`` said Alfred Harris, of 8549 S. Dante Ave. ``He`s nothing but a figurehead.``

Sawyer, the alderman from the 6th Ward, was elected by a coalition of 29 aldermen that included many ethnic whites who had been opponents of the late Mayor Harold Washington, and only 5 other blacks.

``I feel blank,`` said Janet Bolton, a resident of the 34th Ward on the Far South Side. ``I`ve talked about this all day. Just like Harold Washington said, we`re back to business as usual. Last night seemed so underhanded.``

In a heated City Council meeting that lasted past 4 a.m. Wednesday, Sawyer defeated Ald. Timothy Evans (4th), who had support from the late mayor`s staff and many of his more reform-minded allies, as well as an estimated 4,000 people who gathered at City Hall in an attempt to influence the vote.

``I feel Sawyer is a puppet,`` said Crozelle Johnson, of the 7700 block of South Carpenter Street. ``Evans should be the leader.``

Officials at three radio stations serving the black community-WVON, WGCI and WBMX-said they had received a flood of calls from listeners who were overwhelmingly opposed to Sawyer`s election.

WVON general manager Wesley South said callers complained that Sawyer had ``sold out`` to the white aldermen, and some characterized him as ``one of Vrdolyak`s boys,`` a reference to Washington`s longtime nemesis, former Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th).

At Parker`s Barber Shop and Salon, 2305 E. 79th St., owner Charles Parker said, ``Sawyer just happens to be a dealmaker, which I don`t think is beneficial for black people or whites, for that matter.

Richard Lavizzo, a customer at the barber shop, said, ``I thought things had changed with Mayor Washington. I thought people had woken up, but this is Chicago. Chicago will never change.``

Many blacks were upset that the election of Sawyer took place so soon after Monday`s burial of Washington. ``They could have at least waited until he got down in the ground good,`` said Odessa Jackson, an 11th Ward resident. And many were angry at black aldermen who voted for Sawyer.

Debbie Nesbitt of the 12100 block of Wentworth Avenue stormed into the ward office of Ald. Robert Shaw (9th), one of Sawyer`s staunchest supporters, to complain that his aides had lied to her on Tuesday when they said Shaw would vote for Evans and that Shaw had lied in a television interview when he said he had received 3,000 calls in favor of Sawyer.

``In the next election, people are really going to think twice about who they elect as alderman,`` she said, and added that she called Evans` office to offer to work on his campaign in his expected run for the mayor`s job in 1989. ``Sawyer proved last night he wasn`t a strong leader,`` she said. Then, in a reference to Ald. Edward Burke (14th), she added, ``Ald. Burke is running it. Sawyer let everybody else make his decisions.``

In the 15th Ward, a large photograph of Washington, bordered in purple and black bunting, was in the window of 1943 W. 59th St., the office of Ald. Marlene Carter, another Washington ally who backed Sawyer, and a police guard was posted outside.

Nearby, at a doughnut shop at 61st Street and Western Avenue, Jerry Wilson, 48, discussed Sawyer`s election and Carter`s role in it.

``She was supposed to be part of a family,`` Wilson said, ``and that family fell apart for personal reasons and for reasons of personal gain.

``I felt like I lost a lot last night. People of the community are kicking (the pro-Sawyer aldermen) for tearing down something that was working and had never worked before.``

In contrast to the dismay in the black community, whites and Hispanics elsewhere in the city expressed little emotion about Sawyer`s election.

``We should give Sawyer a chance,`` said Wayne Johnson, a resident of the 24th Ward on the West Side.

Frank Milano, 50, waiting for a bus on the Far Northwest Side, noted that both Evans and Sawyer are black. ``I don`t like either of them. I`m for Vrdolyak,`` he said.

Marge Zuluski, pulling a cart of groceries home near Addison Street and Sacramento Avenue, had little to say about the election of Sawyer.

``I wouldn`t know who he was if he was standing right here,`` she said.

``I think I would have preferred someone I know-Mell or Gabinski.``

Ald. Richard Mell (33d) and Ald. Terry Gabinski (32d), both white, had each attempted to gather enough votes to be elected to replace Washington.

On the Near Northwest Side, in the predominantly Puerto Rican 31st Ward, Jose Rivera said, ``All politicians are the same. They only look out for themselves.``

He pulled out a small stack of color photographs of his flooded basement, boxes floating in the water.